(Reuters) - A broad low-pressure system drifting slowly northward over the eastern Yucatan Peninsula has a 70 percent chance of becoming a cyclone in the next 48 hours, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Thursday.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official said he is not satisfied with Volkswagen's efforts to improve accountability after its diesel emissions fraud, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported on Thursday.

(Indiana University) A new environmental monitoring project at Indiana University has found increased numbers of deer ticks, which often carry Lyme disease, in Southern Indiana. The presence of an organism that carries a specific disease-causing bacterium -- like deer ticks -- is commonly followed by a rise in the associated illness.[...][Published in

(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Tropical Cyclone Mekunu, the second tropical cyclone in less than a week, formed in the western Arabian Sea early on May 22, 2018 and is moving toward a landfall in Oman. NASA satellites provided an infrared, night-time and precipitation analysis of the storm.[...][Published in GreenNews - Read

(University of Chicago) A study published in Science offers an explanation for a mysterious and sometimes deadly weather pattern in which the jet stream, the global air currents that circle the Earth, stalls out over a region. Much like highways, the jet stream has a capacity, researchers said, and when it's exceeded, blockages form that are remarkably […]

(American Association for the Advancement of Science) High above our heads, an unseen traffic jam is occurring as meandering jet streams cause eastward atmospheric circulations to become blocked, a process that can in turn create extreme events such as heat waves.[...][Published in GreenNews - Read

Washington, D.C. 24 May 2018 – For this World Refugee Day, June 20, 2018, JRS/USA is asking you, our friends and supporters, to join us in standing with and supporting our displaced Syrian brothers and sisters.[...][Published in AidNews - Read the original[...]

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Country: Djibouti Highlights • Response to floods caused by Cyclone Sagar is underway, under Government leadership. • Although floodwaters[...]

Mozambique peace talks have restarted after the unexpected death of rebel leader Afonso Dhlakama earlier this month threatened to end the tentative negotiations, his party has said.[...][Published in AidNews - Read the original[...]

Ten suspected Ugandan militia members have been killed in an army offensive on a rebel base in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the DRC military has said.[...][Published in AidNews - Read the original article]

Three suspected jihadists who were killed in a pre-dawn raid by Burkina Faso security forces had been "planning an attack" in the capital Ouagadougou, the country's prosecutor has said.[...][Published in AidNews - Read the[...]

Algeria has blasted rights groups for leading a "malicious campaign" against it, after NGOs accused the North African country of arresting sub-Saharan migrants en masse and forcefully deporting them.[...][Published in AidNews - Read

Source: UN Security Council Country: World SC/13354 24 MAY 2018 The Security Council today adopted a resolution condemning the starving of civilians as a method of warfare — as well as the unlawful denial of humanitarian access to civilian populations — with members welcoming it as a landmark expression of unity on those critical[...]

Source: European Council on Refugees and Exiles Country: Algeria, Cameroon, Mali, Nigeria, Spain, World The Interior Ministers of Spain and Algeria signed an agreement this week to form a joint team of investigation with the goals of fighting “illegal migration” and “preventing Islamist terrorism.” The agreement comes after recent crackdowns by the Algerian[ […]

Pakistan's national assembly passed a historic constitutional amendment Thursday, paving the way to bringing the restive Federally Administrative Tribal Areas, known as FATA, into the political mainstream, just a week before the end of its tenure. The bill will be taken up Friday in the Senate. Until now, the area bordering Afghanistan was treated as a […]

Two signatures. That's all that's needed to force a wide-ranging House debate — and votes — on border security and the immigration status of 700,000 undocumented young people brought to the U.S. as children. Since moderate Republicans opposed House leadership two weeks ago with a rare discharge petition to force a so-called "queen of the hill […]

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said North Korea stopped taking part in bilateral consultations that would have been necessary for a productive summit between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. Pompeo provided additional insight into Trump's decision to cancel the historic encounter in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Mo […]

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday issued a posthumous pardon to boxer Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight champion who was jailed a century ago after having a relationship with a white woman. "I believe Jack Johnson is a worthy person to receive a pardon, to correct a wrong in our history," Trump said. In a case that came to […]

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the Trump administration is not pushing for a regime change in Iran, but to achieve global consensus on how to get Tehran to "behave like a normal nation." Pompeo told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Thursday the administration is "well along" with plans to impose previous and new sanctions […]

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Thursday Iran is complying with restrictions on its nuclear program in accord with the 2015 international agreement. The inspectors' assessment is the first since U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the pact. The United Nations atomic watchdog said Tehran is staying within limits on the […]

International investigators looking into the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in July 2014 have identified the Russian military brigade they believe owned the missile that was used to bring down the airliner. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.

No Place for Children

SOMALIA NEWS

This week, as part the UK’s Presidency of the G8, Foreign Ministers will meet to discuss the need to encourage the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) to re-engage in Somalia. The G8 countries are some of the largest shareholders in both the World Bank and the IMF. As a result, the UK is using its Presidency […]

Last Thursday, the Federal Government of Somalia, together with the UK, hosted the latest meeting with a number of key international partners in Mogadishu. The location was significant. This was the first time such a meeting had been held in Mogadishu since the Federal Government came to power last year. It was a real demonstration […]

International Women’s Day is a global opportunity to celebrate and promote the rights of women. It is a chance for all of us, men and women, to unite under a single, common aim – gender equality. This is particularly pertinent in Somalia. Everyone in Somalia has suffered from decades of often unrelenting conflict. But Somalia’s […]

In the lead up to International Women’s Day on Friday, we are featuring the stories of women who work for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as guest posts across the FCO bloggers’ network. Jane Stevens and Tracey McLelland are a successful job sharing duo who are part of the communications team working on the upcoming […]

A year ago, few predicted that Somalia would see such significant changes; yet 2012 saw some real progress in Somalia – including the end of the Transition; a new Parliament (with a significant number of new MPs); the election of a new, reform-minded Speaker and President and a desire for a different type of politics. […]

Earlier this year, the British Foreign Secretary William Hague MP, announced a new initiative to prevent sexual violence against women. It aims to strengthen international efforts and coordination to prevent and respond to sexual violence, to erode the existing culture of impunity, to increase the number of perpetrators brought to justice and to support stat […]

So the final piece of the post-Transition jigsaw has finally fallen into place. Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon’s 10-person Council of Minister is now approved – overwhelmingly – by Parliament and with it, the final act of a two-month process to find Somalia’s new leaders. Put before Parliament last week, their near-unanimous approval of the […] […]

Yesterday, Somalia marked a major milestone in its recent history. After two decades of civil war, and a year after the Roadmap was agreed, the Transitional Period finally concluded with the election by MPs of new President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud. This was the first such election inside Somalia for many years and came just weeks after […]

On Monday, Somalia marked a significant milestone in its history. Twenty years after the country fell into conflict, a new Federal Parliament was inaugurated – paving the way to end the Transition in the next few days, and opening the first legislature to be formed inside Somalia since 1991. This is a huge achievement, both for the […]

The following is a guest blog by Fionna Gibb, Deputy Head of Mission at the British Office for Somalia. As Ambassador Matt Baugh is on leave, last Friday I had the pleasure of hosting the British Office for Somalia’s reception in Mogadishu to celebrate the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. As the sun set […]

US airstrike in Somalia against al-Shabab kills 10 fightersMinneapolis Star TribuneMOGADISHU, Somalia — The U.S. military says it has carried out an airstrike outside Somalia's capital that killed 10 extremists. The U.S. Africa Command says it has carried out 14 such airstrikes so far this year against the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab ...

US military kills 10 al-Shabab militants in SomaliaXinhuaMOGADISHU, May 24 (Xinhua) -- The United States military said Thursday that its special forces conducted an airstrike in southwest of Mogadishu, Somalia, killing ten al-Shabab terrorists. The U.S. Africa Command (Africom) said in a statement that no ...altro »

ReliefWebFamilies urgently need food, clean water, medical support after Somaliland CycloneReliefWeb... drought that had left more than half the population in need of humanitarian support and ongoing floods that has destroyed crops, homes and businesses,” said Simon Nyabwengi, Country Director of World Vision's programmes in Somalia and Somaliland.

ReliefwebSomalia Rainfall Forecast - Issued: 24 May 2018ReliefwebThe last few days have seen a reduction in rainfall activities across Somalia and in the Ethiopian highlands. However, river levels remained high with flooding reported in some upper reaches of the Shabelle, while along the Juba river water levels have ...2018 Somalia Flood Response Plan 15 May […]

The Boston GlobeFrom war-torn Somalia to Maine: An immigrant's story of hopeThe Boston GlobeMY HEART WAS BEATING FAST as the plane banked over downtown Boston and descended to Logan Airport. My face was glued to the window as I looked at the skyscrapers of America, then the blue waters of the Atlantic. Even though we were going down, ...

QuartzPiracy made a strong comeback in Somalia in 2017QuartzAfter years of being on the decline, piracy off the coast of Somalia is making a comeback. The number of incidents in the Horn of Africa region doubled in 2017 compared to the previous year, according to the annual State of Piracy report released by ...altro »

ReliefwebSomalia: Climate Update April 2018 Monthly Rainfall and NDVI (Issued May 24, 2018)ReliefwebHighlights. April 2018 was marked by well above average rains across the country, with the exception of some parts of Bari, Sanaag, Sool and Nugal. Most of the rain gauge stations recorded avereage to well above average rains. Some of the stations that ...

ReliefwebIOM Somalia Monthly Update #3, March 2018ReliefwebSomalia continues to be characterized by migration flows, with internal displacement and irregular migration constituting major challenges. While the risk of famine in Somalia has declined, humanitarian needs remain at critical levels. An estimated 5.4 ...

The numbers are in: 2017 was another costly year for humanitarian aid donors, but despite huge needs in Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, and elsewhere, funding levels have stagnated. In 2017, preliminary UN figures show a drop in relief funding of $1.56 billion, or seven percent, against 2016, despite rising needs. Funding levels continue to be heavily reliant o […]

Displaced by drought and conflict, rural Somalis have been heading to Mogadishu in their tens of thousands. They get no safety or support and are increasingly targeted for forced evictions, but they are still coming. After yet another bad rainy season at the end of last year, Amina Muse abandoned her four-hectare farm in Qorylooley, a small village in sout […]

Every week, IRIN’s team of specialist editors scans the humanitarian horizon to curate important sources on unfolding trends and events around the globe: A diphtheria dilemma? A global shortage of the antitoxin used to treat highly contagious diphtheria could trigger an ethical dilemma for health providers in Bangladesh’s Rohingya refugee camps. There were m […]

Since 9/11, Western countries have increasingly invested in programmes to prevent transnational jihadism. These include militarised measures but also “softer” civic interventions under the banner of ‘countering violent extremism’ (CVE). An example is funding social development programmes, implemented by civil society, with the aim of engaging and deterring i […]

Lifting her robe the young woman revealed undulating scar tissue blanketing her breasts, stomach, and extending up her neck and along her arms. “They poured petrol over me then lit it,” said 28-year-old Husaida Mohammed. “They were Somali boys.” When IRIN met Mohammed she was in a camp of about 3,500 displaced Oromo people on the outskirts of Harar, the anci […]

When Ali Osman Diblawe arrived in Bariire he was barefoot and winded. He had sprinted the 2.5 kilometres from his farm to the southern Somali town after hearing a barrage of gunfire tear through his small village soon after the early morning prayer. That was on 25 August. In the days prior, he and at least two others on the farm had seen what they thought wa […]

The bomb was as enormous as the flecks of torn skin smudging the ground are miniscule. Entire overcrowded buses were blown up, every passenger killed. No one in the vicinity was spared: shopkeepers at the side of the road selling khat; office managers; children fooling around or running errands for parents; a medical student about to graduate; mothers; fathe […]

Hype over what President Donald Trump may or may not say dominated the media build-up to this week’s UN General Assembly. However, US funding cuts and the apparent absence of American authority on key global issues weigh more heavily over world leaders beset by a host of daunting humanitarian challenges. It’s the first UNGA since Trump was elected presiden […]

Ahmed Hussein’s perfectly white teeth seem too big for his mouth; his upper arms look like they belong to a little boy, not a 23-year-old man. Propped up on an iron bed, Hussein laughs and says he always was slim. But he is clearly malnourished. Hussein arrived at Mogadishu’s Bandir Hospital a day earlier with his mother and two sisters, all suffering from a […]

A pirate with a full beard makes an ironic salute as I walk towards him across the red gravel of the prison yard in Garowe, the capital of the Somali region of Puntland. His fellow prisoners turn away in disgust or yell curses at me through the bars. "We hate you. It's your fault that we are sitting here like animals in a cage. It’s humiliating tha […]